Twisted tennis racket frame

ABSTRACT

A twisted tennis racket frame includes a handle, two supporting arms having outside surfaces facing reverse directions, and an annular-shaped head provided on an imaginary plane with large and small arc portions. The large arc portion has an external arc surface, which composes a continuous curved surface with the outside surfaces of the two supporting arms. The continuous curved surface has at least one twisted section having a starting end located at the large arc portion and faces toward a first facing direction that is situated on the imaginary plane, and a terminal end connected with the handle and faces toward a second facing direction. The included angle between the first and second facing directions is larger than 0 degree and not larger than 180 degrees. As a result, the racket performs well in controlling the ball and enables the user to turn the hitting surface quickly.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to sports goods and moreparticularly, to a twisted tennis racket frame, which has betterperformance in controlling the tennis ball and enables the user to turnthe hitting surface of the tennis racket quickly.

2. Description of the Related Art

Before swinging the tennis racket and hitting the tennis ball with thetennis racket, the tennis player has to turn the hitting surface of thetennis racket appropriately according to the hitting method such asforehand, backhand, smash, chop, volley, and so on. Therefore, a tennisracket frame enabling the tennis player to turn the hitting surface ofthe tennis racket is required. However, the manufacturers of theconventional tennis racket frames are not aware of such requirement, andnever attend to fill such requirement. Besides, the tennis racket'sperformance in controlling the tennis ball has much influence on theperformance of the tennis player, so how to improve the tennis racket'sperformance in controlling the tennis ball is an important subject forthe related industry.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an objective of the present invention to provide a twisted tennisracket frame, which has better performance in controlling the tennisball and enables the user to turn the hitting surface of the tennisracket quickly.

To attain the above objective, the present invention provides a twistedtennis racket frame which includes a handle, two supporting arms, and ahead. Each of the two supporting arms is extended from an end of thehandle and has an inside surface and an outside surface. The insidesurfaces of the two supporting arms face each other, and the outsidesurfaces of the two supporting arms face reverse directions. The head isannular-shaped and provided on an imaginary plane with a large arcportion and a small arc portion. The large arc portion is C-shaped andhas two ends connected with ends of the two supporting armsrespectively. The small arc portion is connected with the two ends ofthe large arc portion. The large arc portion has an external arc surfaceand an internal arc surface. The external arc surface and the outsidesurfaces of the two supporting arms compose a continuous curved surface.The continuous curved surface has at least one twisted section providedwith a starting end and a terminal end. The starting end is located atthe large arc portion of the head and faces toward a first facingdirection that is situated on the imaginary plane. The terminal end isconnected with the handle and faces toward a second facing direction.The included angle between the second facing direction and the firstfacing direction is larger than 0 degree and not larger than 180degrees.

Resulted from the configuration design of the twisted section, thetwisted tennis racket frame enables the user to turn the hitting surfaceof the tennis racket quickly for changing hitting method nimbly, andimproves the performance of the tennis racket in controlling the tennisball.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first preferred embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view of the first preferred embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 is a partial lateral view of the first preferred embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line 4-4 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a second preferred embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The structural features and effects of the present invention will bespecified in the following description of two preferred embodiments ofthe present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1-3, a twisted tennis racket frame 10 according to afirst preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a handle20, two supporting arms 30, and a head 40.

The handle 20 has a front end 21, a rear end 22, and octagonal crosssections.

Each of the two supporting arms 30 are extended from the front end 21 ofthe handle 20 and has an inside surface 31 and an outside surface 32.The inside surfaces 31 of the two supporting arms 30 face each other,and the outside surfaces 32 of the two supporting arms 30 face reversedirections.

The head 40 is annular-shaped and provided with a large arc portion 41and a small arc portion 45. The large arc portion 41 and the small arcportion 45 are located on an imaginary plane 50. For the convenience ofillustration, the imaginary plane 50 is the X-Y plane in thisembodiment. The large arc portion 41 is C-shaped and has two ends 42connected with ends 33 of the two supporting arms 30 respectively. Thesmall arc portion 45 is also connected with the two ends 42 of the largearc portion 41. The large arc portion 41 has an external arc surface 43and an internal arc surface 44. The external arc surface 43 and theoutside surfaces 32 of the two supporting arms 30 compose a continuouscurved surface 60 which has two twisted sections 70. Each of the twistedsections 70 has a starting end 71 which is located at the juncture ofthe large arc portion 41 of the head 40 and the supporting arm 30 anddefined with a first facing direction 81. The first facing directions 81of the two twisted sections 70 are both located on the imaginary plane50, i.e. the X-Y plane. Each of the twisted sections 70 has a terminalend 72 which is connected with the handle 20 and defined with a secondfacing direction 82. In this embodiment, the second facing directions 82of the two twisted sections 70 are both parallel to the Z-dimension; oneof the second facing directions 82 points to the upside of the X-Yplane, and the other second facing direction 82 points to the downsideof the X-Y plane. The second facing direction 82 and the first facingdirection 81 of each twisted section 70 have an included angletherebetween. The two included angles are equal to each other, and eachincluded angle is approximately equal to 90 degrees. The two twistedsections 70 are twisted in the same direction in a way that the junctureof one of the supporting arms 30 and the handle 20 is located above theimaginary plane 50 and the juncture of the other supporting arm 30 andthe handle 20 is located below the imaginary plane 50.

It should be mentioned that each of the first facing directions 81 andthe second facing directions 82 is a facing direction which is definedon a surface as the direction the surface faces. The concept of thefacing direction is like that of the direction the human face fronts; nomater how curved the human face is, the human face fronts a directionwhich is just like the facing direction defined in the presentinvention. Refer to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 illustrates the cross section of thejuncture of the large arc portion 41 and the supporting arm 30 of thetennis racket frame 10, and the starting end 71 of the twisted section70 is located at the juncture. Because the part of the continuous curvedsurface 60 shown in FIG. 4 belongs to the external arc surface 43 of thelarge arc portion 41, the first facing direction 81 in FIG. 4 isillustrated as the arrow to the right. If an imaginary connecting line Lis defined to connect two junctures 47 of the continuous curved surface60, the part of which shown in FIG. 4 belongs to the external arcsurface 43, and the internal arc surface 44, the first facing direction81 is perpendicular to the imaginary connecting line L and passesthrough the midpoint of the imaginary connecting line L. In thisembodiment, the imaginary connecting line L is parallel to theZ-dimension, and the first facing direction 81 is located on the X-Yplane. As shown in FIGS. 1-3, the facing direction of each twistedsection 70 rotates counterclockwise (viewed from the rear end 22 of thehandle 20) from the starting end 71 to the terminal end 72. At thestarting end 71, the facing direction is the first facing direction 81located on the X-Y plane. At the terminal end 72, the facing directionsof the two twisted sections 70 become the second facing directions 82which are parallel to the Z-dimension. One of the second facingdirections 82 points to the positive direction of the Z-dimension andthe other second facing direction 82 points to the negative direction ofthe Z-dimension.

When the right-handed user is taken as an instance, the tennis racketframe 10 of the present invention is used in a way that the user holdsthe handle 20 with the right hand and slightly supports the twosupporting arms 30, i.e. the twisted sections 70, with the left hand.When a force is applied from the left hand to turn the racket, thedirection of the force is approximately perpendicular to the part of thecontinuous curved surface 60 there, so that the tennis racket frame 10can be turned to the demanded angle quickly, enabling the user to changethe hitting method nimbly. Besides, resulted from the configurationdesign of the twisted sections 70 of the continuous curved surface 60,the feeling of hitting the tennis ball with the tennis racket having thetwisted tennis racket frame 10 is quite different from the feeling ofhitting the tennis ball with the conventional tennis racket. Thepractical trial performed by tennis players indicates that the tennisracket frame of the present invention has better performance incontrolling the tennis ball than the conventional tennis racket frame,thereby showing potential in marketability.

Based on the spirit of the present invention, the area of the twistedsection can be modified, such as that of the twisted tennis racket frame10 according to a second preferred embodiment of the present inventionas shown in FIG. 5. The structure of the frame in the second preferredembodiment is similar to that in the first preferred embodiment. If thehandle 20 is defined in the 6 o'clock direction relative to the head 40,the large arc portion 41 of the head 40 has two side ends 46 located atthe 3 o'clock position and the 9 o'clock position of the head 40respectively. The twisted tennis racket frame 10 of the second preferredembodiment is characterized in that the starting ends 71 of the twistedsections 70 are located at the side ends 46 respectively.

In other potential embodiments, the twisted sections are not limited tobe equal in the included angle between the second facing direction andthe corresponding first facing direction, and the twisted sections maybe twisted in opposite directions; alternately, the twisted tennisracket frame may have only one twisted section. Besides, the includedangle between the first and second facing directions may be modifiedaccording to the user's habit of hitting ball, as long as the includedangle is larger than 0 degree and not larger than 180 degrees. If theincluded angle doesn't equal 90 degrees, the junctures of the supportingarms and the handle may not located above and below the imaginary planerespectively.

It should be mentioned that the starting end of the twisted section isnot limited to be located as in first and second preferred embodiments;the starting end can be located at any position of the large arc portionof the head, such as the 12 o'clock position, the 4 o'clock position, orthe 8 o'clock position.

The above description represents merely the preferred embodiment of thepresent invention, without any intention to limit the scope of thepresent invention. The simple variations and modifications not to beregarded as a departure from the spirit of the invention are intended tobe included within the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A twisted tennis racket frame comprising: ahandle (20); two supporting arms (30) extended from an end (21) of thehandle (20) and each having an inside surface (31) and an outsidesurface (32), the inside surfaces (31) of the two supporting arms (30)facing each other, the outside surfaces (32) of the two supporting arms(30) facing reverse directions; and a head (40) which is annular-shapedand provided on an imaginary plane (50) with a large arc portion (41),which is C-shaped and has two ends (42) connected with ends of the twosupporting arms (30) respectively, and a small arc portion (45)connected with the two ends (42) of the large arc portion (41), thelarge arc portion (41) having an external arc surface (43) and aninternal arc surface (44), the external arc surface (43) and the outsidesurfaces (32) of the two supporting arms (30) composing a continuouscurved surface (60); wherein the continuous curved surface (60) has atleast one twisted section (70) provided with a starting end (71), whichis located at the large arc portion (41) of the head (40) and facestoward a first facing direction (81) that is situated on the imaginaryplane (50), and a terminal end (72), which is connected with the handle(20) and defined with a second facing direction (82), an included anglebetween the second facing direction (82) and the first facing direction(81) being larger than 0 degree and not larger than 180 degrees.
 2. Thetwisted tennis racket frame as claimed in claim 1, wherein the startingend (71) of the twisted section (70) is located at a juncture of thelarge arc portion (41) of the head (40) and the supporting arm (30). 3.The twisted tennis racket frame as claimed in claim 1, wherein thestarting end (71) of the twisted section (70) is located at a side end(46) of the large arc portion (41) of the head (40).
 4. The twistedtennis racket frame as claimed in claim 1, wherein the included anglebetween the first facing direction (81) and the second facing direction(82) is substantially equal to 90 degrees.
 5. The twisted tennis racketframe as claimed in claim 4, wherein a juncture of one of the twosupporting arms (30) and the handle (20) is located above the imaginaryplane (50) and a juncture of the other supporting arm (30) and thehandle (20) is located below the imaginary plane (50).
 6. The twistedtennis racket frame as claimed in claim 1, wherein the continuous curvedsurface (60) has two said twisted sections (70).
 7. The twisted tennisracket frame as claimed in claim 6, wherein the included angle betweenthe first facing direction (81) and the second facing direction (82) ofone of the twisted sections (70) is equal to the included angle betweenthe first facing direction (81) and the second facing direction (82) ofthe other twisted section (70).